That was the message of an 85-minute oral report presented by Ambassador Crawford Falconer, chairperson of the agriculture negotiations, to WTO members.

Use this link to download the audio file or to listen to what he said in the meeting:

Audio: Chairperson Crawford Falconer's statement

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Explanation

Ambassador Falconer described in some detail the consultations he has been holding with some delegations on a number of subjects, particularly:

• “tariff quota creation” — whether new tariff quotas can be created. This influences which products can be “sensitive” since sensitive products have to have tariff quotas. Whether or not new tariff quotas can be created will determine whether products currently without tariff quotas can be “sensitive” and partially shielded from tariff cuts. (Tariff quotas are quotas with lower tariffs on quantities within the quotas and higher tariffs on quantities outside)

• “tariff simplification” — whether all tariffs should be converted to percentages of the products’ prices — where current high prices have changed countries’ positions

• “Green Box” domestic support provisions dealing with developing countries’ food purchases for stockpiling and foruse as domestic food aid. (Green Box supports do not distort markets or cause minimal distortion and are therefore allowed without limits)

• “sensitive products” — these will be partly shielded from the full force of the tariff-reduction formula, but some market access has to be offered through tariff quotas

• the “special safeguard mechanism” (SSM) for developing countries, a mechanism allowing tariffs to be raised temporarily to deal with import surges or price falls — see also unofficial explanation.

• cotton — where trade-distorting domestic support will be cut deeper and faster than support on other products.

Explanations of these and other subjects are available for the chairperson’s 11 August 2008 report and 10 July 2008 draft.

His account of the situation in tariff simplification includes references to the “Paris methodology”. This is a method for converting other forms of tariffs into percentages of the value (“ad valorem” equivalents or AVEs), which took several months to negotiate, culminating in a meeting in Paris on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in May 2005. The highly technical method was reproduced in Annex A of the 2006 draft “modalities”, with additional information in a series of Secretariat documents.

This meeting

This was an informal agriculture negotiations meeting of the full membership, officially an “Informal Open-Ended Special Session” of the Agriculture Committee.

The latest texts and a number of related issues can be found with explanations here, including what “the text” is and says, and a “jargon buster”.

The chairperson refers to “Room E” or “Room D” meetings. These are talks among a group of 37 representative delegations, also part of the “multilateral process”. They normally take place in Room E at the WTO headquarters, but sometimes in another room (eg, Room D). Ultimately, the current phase of the negotiations is about “modalities”, explained here.

Ambassador Falconer uses the term “walks in the woods” to describe consultations outside the WTO. He has explained that these involve about 15 delegations, the exact numbers depending on the subject.

He has also confirmed that he will be returning to New Zealand by the end of the year to take up a new appointment, as announced in August.